Anti-vaccine misinformation is a
double whammy of dangerous ignorance: It makes people fear autistic people like my beloved son Leo,
and it endangers the health and lives of children all over the world. So I counter that misinformation with my own double whammy: I speak out against anti-vaccine information and
fight for good vaccine information whenever I can, as hard as I can.

Champions on
Capitol Hill. Photo: Shot@Life

Which means I was thrilled to be invited to
Washington DC by the United Nations Foundation's Shot@Life Campaign: as a UNF Global Issues Fellow to
further the vaccine awareness work other bloggers and I did during Blogust, and as a Shot@Life Champion, trained on global vaccine awareness and issues and then unleashed on Capitol Hill with ninety-nine other Shot@Life champions to
meet with our Senators and Congressional Representatives, in order to
urge them to continue their support of life-saving global initiatives.

It was an life-changing experience, walking the halls of the Capitol
Hill office buildings in the company of people who gave such incredible
damns. Realizing, that, as a constituent, I have the same right any other constituent to have my say, directly to my members of Congress (or their staff). Which we did! Here are some of the fantastic people we talked with:

And here is what we told the Senators' and Representatives' Congressional teams: Thank you for supporting global vaccine
initiatives (because, thankfully, California and Silicon Valley were already on board). Let us
know how we can support you -- and if you get blowback from your
other constituents about diverting money internationally when we have so many domestic needs, we're here to provide you with information to address most any
concern (and I also offered my services as a pro-vaccine autism parent). We need to keep funding international immunization programs for these reasons:

Humanitarian: A child dies every 20 seconds because they
don't have access to life-saving vaccines, and 1 in 5 children lacks
access to vaccines. Plus, immunizations save the lives of 2.5 million
children, each year.

Public Safety: Measles infects 95% of the unvaccinated people
who encounter a carrier; polio is only a plane ride away from returning
to the United States. And babies can't be vaccinated in against measles in their first year of life. To keep ourselves safe, we must help eradicate
vaccine-preventable disease in the rest of the world.

"When you choose not to immunize your child, you're playing Russian
Roulette with your child."

And before the Champion Summit, Shot@Life invited a group of bloggers to participate in the UN Foundation Global Issues Fellowship, which was like our own mini TED conference on Conversations About Global Agencies, Public Health, Vaccines, and Communication: Challenges, Goals, Myths, and Next Steps. I felt so grateful and lucky to participate, and to spend time with the group pictured below. So grateful, in fact, that I've put together Storified versions of most of the talks below (just click on the "they talked about" links), so you, too, can share what we learned.

Here are the wonderful people we ever-so-fortunate Global Issues Fellows got to hear from:

Ambassador
Jimmy Kolker, former US Ambassador to Uganda and Burkina Faso, current Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, US Dept of Health and
Human Services, along
with Peter Yeo, Vice President for Public Policy at the United Nations
Foundation, spoke about health challenges around the globe -- include violence, and violence against women.

"Simple solutions to global violence against woman include having a female police officer at the hospitals, as Namibia does."

"Peacekeeping is an attempt to get a country back on its feet after a crisis, including jobs, and access to justice."
Photo: Chloe Jeffreys

Devi Ramachandran Thomas, Director of the United Nations Foundation's
Shot@Life program, spoke about prioritizing global children's health, including reducing child
mortality through vaccinations and also by combating malnutrition,
diarrhea, and malaria.

"In Mozambique, many parents will not name their child until after they've been vaccinated."
Me, Devi
(center), Lucrecer Braxton

"At the end of the day, social media trends remind us that humans have a lot in common."
Photo: UN Foundation

Now, hopefully, you're wondering "How can I help? Tell me tell me!" And of course, the answers are "get involved!" (Shot@Life's site has an excellent advocacy toolkit) and "donate!" Donate your time, donate funds, donate your voice in spreading the messages above, especially about global vaccine issues. You can always donate to Shot@Life directly, but you can also manage your advocacy and outreach with the Shot@Life app, or even donate photos -- each worth $1 towards global vaccines -- through the Donate a Photo app.

If there is a single message you should be taking away from the onslaught of information above, it is this: You have so many options for helping to get life-saving vaccines to the children who need them. Pick an option, and get going!

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Again, my sincere thanks to the UN Foundation and Shot@Life, and everyone who made this incredible experience possible -- including my companions in the Shot@Life Champions Summit and Global Issues Fellowship. Disclosure: The UN Foundation provided my travel & lodgings for the two events.

7 comments:

What a great re-cap of the Summit events! You are a great story teller. Im sure those who weren't able to attend can pick up the excitement and motivation from the weeks events. It was a pleasure meeting all this years Shot@Life Champions and I look forward to working together to protect kids around the world from vaccine preventable diseases!

Amazing recap. Shan, you are one of the most amazing advocates I have ever known. I am going to try and not sound cheesy when I say that just being around you is inspiring, but, maybe that sounds cheesy. I always learn something new from you, as I'm sure many of us at the summit did.